Count Alabama Crimson Tide head coach among those who have weighed in on the decisions by LSU running back Leonard Fournette and Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey to skip their respective bowl games.
Saban said Wednesday the kids shouldn't be blamed and instead pointed the finger at college football and the creation of a playoff for minimizing the importance of other bowl games, per Mark Schlabach of ESPN.com:
Alabama coach Nick Saban weighed in on players skipping bowls during interview with #ESPN pic.twitter.com/X70nRLUIkG
— Mark Schlabach (@Mark_Schlabach) December 21, 2016
McCaffrey announced he would skip Stanford's Sun Bowl showdown with North Carolina to get ready for the 2017 NFL draft on his Twitter page:
— Christian McCaffrey (@CMccaffrey5) December 19, 2016
Fournette won't play in LSU's Citrus Bowl matchup with Louisville and said he wants to rest his injured ankle, per Ross Dellenger of The Advocate.